They took the batteries out of every single electronic I had, unpacked my entire suitcase, unfolded the convertible cloaks, and then piled everything back together messily, couldn't fit it into the suitcase properly, and bound the entire mess up with special packing tape. It was not the highlight of my trip, but I was just glad the plane didn't leave without me and that they let me continue going to Israel at all.

My flight stopped in Brussels, Belgium at which point I transferred to an El Al Airlines plane. A neat, plainclothes-ed woman asked me questions whose answers she definitely was not satisfied by. My trip was open-ended. I didn't know the address of where I would be staying.

I got strip-searched while they delayed the plane.

In the week that B- was already in Israel, I completed our two convertible cloak packs. They were long, hooded, converted into backpacks, and were decorated with patterns in waterproof reflective tape (for visibility).

I had just gotten a sewing machine for my birthday from B-'s family. I worked for weeks on a prototype of the convertible cloak/pack while we waited for the real fabric to arrive

B- did research about what fabrics would be light-weight, water resistant, flexible, and affordable. I called fabric supply companies and we ordered 7 yards (I think) of a slightly-stretchy denim-looking-finished water-resistant material for what seemed like a reasonable price at the time--I forget now how much.

A large bottle of water (perhaps 1.5 liters) cost, I believe, 2 dinars, though I can't specifically recall.

At the Valentine Inn there was a vegetarian banquet. I forget whether it was an everyday occurrence (though I think it was). I think it cost 2 dinar per person (a little under four dollars). Cheap, but you get what you paid for--they had a large, long table set up outside laden with an impossibility of dishes, but the decidedly good ones went quickly and most of the foods all tasted the same--not of much. The staff cooked for the banquet all morning and serving plates kept being replaced from the kitchen as they ran empty. The hit of the banquet the time B- and I attended was a huge, towering bowl of pasta, plain, I think, save for some kind of fat--and maybe cheese? I can't recall; I just recall there was no traditional American pasta sauce on the vat of chopped spaghetti. I also remember fried bean balls similar to falafel, and white dips, and flatbread.